The next destination is Badlands National Park. The plan was to camp in a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) dispersed camping area close to the north entrance to Badlands NP a bit south of the town of Wall. It is called Nomad View Dispersed and is situated in the Buffalo Gap National Grassland that surrounds the national park. With how wet the spring has been in this part of the country, we started to question that choice. We had read about how even four wheel drive truck campers get stuck there in wet weather, so we decided we needed a plan B. Chris called a campground in the town of Interior which is just outside the southeast corner of the park. They did have availability for a week long stay so we headed there instead.
Our GPSr was adamant about not driving through the national park to get to the town of Interior but taking the route it wanted was going to add quite a few miles to the day. We did some online investigating and all indications were that we would not have any problems driving the rig through the park. Plus our private campground in Interior was probably only 4 miles down the road from Cedar Pass campground that is inside of the park. Cedar Pass is a first come, first serve campground and is sized better for tents and smaller rigs. Big rigs can fit in some of the sites but we had a 215 mile drive, so we wouldn’t be coming in very early enough to get a spot that worked. Badlands Interior Campground and Motel should work out just fine for our stay.
The drive across Interstate 90 was very easy with rest stop along the way that turned out to be much better than most. The rest area is near the town of Chamberlain SD and is available for both east or westbound traffic. It sits high above the Missouri River. Beside the standard rest area amenities, there is a welcome center with a Lewis and Clark exhibit. Plus there is a 50 foot tall statue of an Indian woman titled Dignity that was erected back in September 2016. It was definitely worth the stop. The rest of the drive was good. The road down and through Badlands NP was a little curvy and hilly but not too much of a problem for our rig. We did need to renew our annual National Park Pass since our last one had expired back in the fall, but since this summer’s trip is basically a National Park tour for us, spending the $80 is a no-brainer.
50 Foot Dignity Statue
Even Back is Pretty
Overlooking Missouri River
Art at Lewis and Clark Exhibit
It was probably wise to pick a private campground although even it had some pretty wet sites. Part of the problem with Badlands Interior Campground is they use a pea gravel rather than crushed stone for the drives and sites. Since the gravel can’t really compress and firm up, as we drive into our waterlogged site, we can see the tires sinking in. Since we had just had issue a couple campgrounds ago with sinking into saturated gravel, we were much more cautious here. Fortunately the weather was generally dry for the week so even the one inch of water in our fire ring dried up before we left. The view of the Badlands from the campground is quite nice. The pastureland next to it had a few horses and two of them were rather friendly and would come over to greet the campers.
Horse with Badlands as Backdrop
Heading Our Way
Gentle Horses
View from Campground
When weather and time aren’t an issue, we tend to scope out a national park to get a feel for it. We have a full week here and the forecast is looking promising. Ben Reifel Visitor Center is definitely a busy place. We pick up some maps and other information about ranger talks. They have a nice display room with all sorts of info about the geology, animals and fossils found in the area. They even have a paleontology room which isn’t open yet, but will be up and running during our stay here! The one unique thing about this park is that it is an “open” park, meaning we aren’t limited to just doing the established trails. In most parks, the rule is to stay on the trail! Here, they stress being safe, especially when you are near the larger animals of the park but it should be a fun place to explore. I overheard one ranger explain it to somebody that the rain they have had just in the past few weeks has caused more erosion than years of visitors could.
At Visitor Center
We drive some of the park and do a few of the short trails that appears to get every single visitor to stop at. The good thing is they have plenty of parking at those popular spots and with the open policy, the place doesn’t seem too crowded. The Cliff Shelf Trail rises up above the roadway and provides a nice view of to the south of the park. We cannot quite make out where our campground is even though we know it’s there somewhere. The Window and Door trails are both rather short with boardwalks to keep the wear and tear of the ground to a minimum. We see the trailheads for a couple other hikes we will attempt later in our stay.
View at Cliff Shelf
Heading Up
Lots of Erosion at this Benchmark
Erosion Creating Art
We turn around and head to the west side of the park with the goal of going to a ranger talk about fossils. We get there early enough to take in the nice walkway that winds thru the section of park that is dedicated to the fossils found in the park. The park makes a strong push to have visitors that might spot a newly exposed fossil report it by filling out a form with GPS coordinates and pictures but make sure not to remove it. They have several examples where park visitors have found a fossil, filled out the form and staff paleontologists have discovered some great new location for a dig. Maybe this is why they have the open travel policy, it gets thousands of people off the beaten path all in search of fossils - something a couple paleontologists could never hope to accomplish. The ranger had all sorts of props with some of them being actual fossils from the park. It was fun and informative and drew a pretty good crowd.
Lush Green from Heavy Rains
View from Fossil Exhibit Area
Attentive Crowd at Ranger Talk
We continued driving to the west and stopped at just about every pullout to see how the view has changed. Traveling at that pace means it takes nearly forever to drive the length of the park. In fact, we don’t make it the full way thru the park before we see some ominous, dark clouds heading our way and figure we should turn around since we left windows open in the motorhome. We will have time to see the rest of the park.
Chris Goes Out Further than Expected
Storm Brewing
Colorful Rock Layers
Yellow Mounds
The following day we set out to do what might be the best hike in the Badlands. The Castle Trail is about 5.5 miles long but only has about 300 feet of elevation gain so it isn’t too bad. Of course, that distance will double if you don’t have two cars at your disposal which was our case. It is predominantly an east-west trail and can be accessed from either the Door/Window/Notch parking area to the east or the Fossil Exhibit parking to the west. We pick the former since it is closer to our campground. With full Camelbacks and a couple PB&J sandwiches, we set off. The first mile and a half is a pretty walk. Lots of neat rock formations although many of them look to be more like dried mud. The recent rains have brought out a good number of wildflowers.
The Start of Castle Trail
Well Marked Trail in Interesting Landscape
Unnatural Looking Window
Shortly after crossing Old Northeast Road, we hit a split in the trail. Castle trail continues to the left while Medicine Root Trail veers to the right. Both trails reconnect in about 2 miles so it doesn’t really matter which one you pick. We stayed on Castle and continued on our way. I’m always looking for things to take pictures of and trying to find good vantage points for them. I saw a twelve foot mound that looked to be easy enough to climb to get a good perspective of the surrounding landscape. As I got to the top and looked around, I noticed something move about 100 feet away. It was a bighorn sheep that stood up after I startled it by coming into view. As I watch it, watching me, I notice 3 others still laying down on the ground. They blend in so well with the rocks, had the one not moved, I likely would never had noticed any of them. After a minute, the one plopped back down realizing I posed no real threat. Unfortunately I didn’t have my good camera and long telephoto lens along but just seeing them was sufficient.
Look Closely - Several Bighorn Sheep
At the next trail junction, Medicine Root rejoins plus Saddle Pass Trail heads off to the south. This last section of Castle trail is quite different from the first two parts. I won’t say it wasn’t pretty, it just was less visually striking. We did see a brightly colored snake basking on the trail at one point. It stayed put long enough to get some pictures but I’m still unsure what type of snake it is. As we get within a quarter mile of the Fossil Exhibit parking area, we start to see loads of people and I do mean loads. There was a large tour bus parked in the lot and a group of 40 people had gotten out to do a little exploring in this part of the park.
A Change in Terrain
Colorful Snake
Looking at Fossil Exhibit Parking with Tourists Exploring
We sat behind the one building and enjoyed the smushed PB&J sandwiches while we relaxed in the shade. Of course doing so made getting up a challenge. We retrace our route with the exception of following the Medicine Root Trail for the middle section. We never did figure out what plant this trail refers to. It ended up being about 11.5 miles. It was a nice trail but if you don’t have the time or stamina to do that long of a hike, the section of Castle trail closer to the east was prettier and more interesting.
We were tired after the long hike, but it was a nice afternoon and we hadn’t gotten a chance to see the western portion of the park, so we figured a simple drive through the park wouldn’t be too strenuous. The views at the overlooks are all pretty spectacular, but the Yellow Mounds Overlook has something a little different that all the others. This area has eroded more and has exposed some of the older rock formations in the park that happen to be yellow.
Slight Detour Along Conata Road for Geocache
Yellow Mounds
About three miles past the yellow mounds, the main park road turns north and heads into the town of Wall. We decided to save that for another day and instead drive out further west on Sage Creek Rim Road. While not paved, it is generally in great shape and could be driven in just about any vehicle. About five miles out, we come upon Roberts Prairie Dog Town. These little critters are all over the park but this section of them is off the beaten path and has plenty of parking to park and check them out. Unless people walk out into the field with them, they seem to be tolerant of human scrutiny. But if one of those humans happens to have a dog, they all start sounding the alarm and keep a watchful eye on it. When they sense too much danger, they scramble into one of the many holes. They all look the same so it was difficult to determine if the hundreds of holes are community property of if each one has their own set of holes. I try setting up the GoPro on a tripod near the activity, but they seem to be wary of it and keep their distance.
Colorful Moth or Butterfly?
Doing the Warning Dance
I Need a Rest
We continue down the road with the knowledge that bison are often found in this portion of the park. One point to clarify, are they bison or buffalo? Well according to what we have read, the terms are interchangeable with bison being more correct. I find myself using either name somewhat arbitrarily. We do see a few here and there as we drive but most of them are close to a quarter mile away. It wasn’t until we got to the intersection with Sage Creek Road that we find some right on the road. The intersection is more like a triangle linking the three roads. Each side of the triangle is large - roughly football field length. And the three bison are more or less one each of the sections. This permits us to drive around them trying to get a good angle to take photos while not getting too close to them. I was taking pictures with my long telephoto lens thru the open car windows.
At one point, another vehicle pulls up just across from one of the bison which is 20 feet off the road. Out of the car jumps two young children and their parents. The parents have their phones out taking pictures or shooting video while their kids run towards the bison. I sat sort of dumbfounded wondering what kind of parent allows their kids to get this close to a wild animal that weighs nearly a ton and can run 35 MPH? As the 7 year old girl ran up to the bison, it got nervous and started to run - fortunately away from the girl rather than towards her. It was quite the experience and I suppose the parents thought the whole experience was wonderful!
Kids (and Parents) Behaving Badly
Are You Looking at Me?
By now it is starting to get late and we are hungry so we head north then east on Sage Creek Road to get back onto the main park road so we can hustle home for dinner. As we approach the Pinnacles entrance station, we notice a handful of cars pulled off to the side of the road. Sure enough, there were a dozen or so bison in the vicinity and they appeared to be heading east which meant the ones on the west side of the road would be crossing the road. I got out of the car but stayed close while the massive beasts crossed in between the cars. They really didn’t seem to mind the attention but they definitely didn’t look both ways before crossing the street. This was a great way to end a wonderful day.
Taking a Leak Before Crossing the Road
Why Did the Bison Cross the Road?
My Turn to Cross
Size Perspective
Continue Grazing
There are a few other things to see in the area around the Badlands. Of course there is Wall Drugs which we have constantly been reminded of over the past few weeks with all the billboards along the interstate. Another attraction are a few sites associated with the Minuteman Missile program. The main visitor center for this is back up at I-90 at the same exit as the Badlands. We head there to do a short tour of the place. We had been to a Titan Missile site near Tucson a couple years ago but this is the first time to see this newer type of intercontinental ballistic missile. The visitor center looks fairly new and is nicely done. One of the volunteers to great us used to work at one of the Missile squadrons located in this part of South Dakota. There were ~150 Minuteman missiles in bunkers from here to the Wyoming border with upward of 1000 scattered around the USA.
Visitor Center for Missile Site
There are all sorts of displays telling the history of the Cold War and the buildup of the nuclear arsenals in the US and USSR. It was rather fascinating although maybe a bit overwhelming at times. Most of the missile silos have been decommissioned and destroyed. The National Park Service runs the facilities now and has two other locations a bit further west along I-90. Delta-01 is a launch control center and sounds like the best place to see. They do offer ranger led talks there but a tour spot must be reserved - apparently months in advance. Admittedly we knew months ago we would be in this area but hadn’t planned this aspect. Delta-09 is a former missile site that is open to the public. It has occasional ranger talks but can be visited at other times during the day and one can learn about the place by calling a phone number and listening to any of several recorded messages. We came here on our way back from Wall for an afternoon ranger talk which was okay but there isn’t much to see here.
Missile Humor?
Trajectory
Looking at Minuteman at Delta-09
Silo Cover on Rails
Hardened High Frequency Antenna
We did make it to the famous Wall Drugs. It’s hard to describe exactly what the place is other than a well advertised tourist trap. It consists of several buildings with lots of shops and food options. There is even a chapel. They provide lots of props for photo ops. I did was amazed to find a totem pole carved by someone from the tiny town of Louisville Ohio where many of my relatives are from and where I lived during summer break of my freshman year in college. I didn’t recognize the artists name though. Would I recommend a stop at Wall Drug? I suppose if you’re passing by it would be worth a stop for an hour but I wouldn't plan your summer vacation around it!
Hard to Miss This When Approaching Wall on I-90
Totem from Louisville Ohio!!!!!
Rough Card Game
Chris Finds Safer Bison to Pet
Dino Looking for Food
We finished up our afternoon with a drive thru the national park as we head back to our campgrounds. A storm was coming and we wanted to see if we could back before getting wet. We were also hoping to see more bison at the Pinnacles entrance but they had moved on. We stopped at a few of the of the overlooks to see if there were good views of the approaching storm. At one point along the road, we saw several cars pulled off to the side. We weren't 100 percent sure what we might find, but it wasn’t quite raining so we stopped to check it out. There were about 8 bighorn sheep. Several adult females were up near the road laying down or grazing on the grass. But the real interesting sight were the 5 young sheep playing on the side of a hill. They would run up and down and try to head butt one another. The hill they were on was rather loose soil and it wasn’t clear how they had any traction to put on the moves there were doing. We gave up as the rain started to arrive and headed home.
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